A rash of home invasions in the Dover area continued early Wednesday morning when a fifth occupied home was forcibly entered by armed, masked men.

No one has been hurt in any of the five incidents. The number of men victims reported varies from as few as two to as many as four, but police can't ignore the similarities.

"We can't say yet for sure that they're related, but all obvious signs point in that direction," said Master Cpl. Mark Hoffman, a Dover police spokesman.

Wednesday's home invasion happened around 1:30 a.m. in the 900 block of Woodcrest Drive, Dover police said. It took about two hours for victims to notify police because the residents believed, for a time, they still were being held hostage.

A resident was leaving his apartment when two armed men approached, forced him back in and demanded the others inside lie on the floor, according to Dover police. The robbers stole game systems, jewelry, a wallet, clothes, cellphones and car keys.

The victims called police from a neighbor's phone, police said.

Dover-area families have been terrorized by similar home invasions since Sunday, when police reported two men entered an apartment in the 200 block of Cecil St. They ransacked the place and took car keys, a cellphone and a wallet.

They drove off in the victim's black Kia Soul with Delaware tags reading PC36265.

In a two-hour stretch early Tuesday morning, state and Dover police responded to three other home invasions. In two cases, families were held hostage while their valuables were collected and stolen. In a third, a family dog chased the intruders off.

State police said a home in the 100 block of Sandalwood Drive in Felton was hit around 12:30 a.m., and another, about a 20-mile drive away in the first block of Dover's Kentwood Drive, had its door kicked in around 1:40 a.m.

About 20 minutes later, men kicked open the door of a home in the nearby 100 block of Teak Court. Someone shouted "Dover police" as the door swung in, but a family dog named Bently chased the intruders back into the predawn dark.

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Bently, a Labrador/German Shepard mix, chased away the men who tried to break into his family's home in the 100 block of Teak Court in Dover Tuesday morning.(Photo: Adam Duvernay/The News Journal)

Asleep on the couch at the time were two adult women and a child.

"I just saw a whole bunch of guys terrified of a big black dog. Just think about the movie 'Sandlot' when they're all running from the big dog and everybody's scrambling all over the place," said one of the homeowners, whose name was withheld for her safety. "But it was a very traumatizing experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."

Contact Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@delawareonline.com or (302) 319-1855 or @duvINdelaware.